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Addams Family: Morticia, the Matchmaker
"Morticia, the Matchmaker" is the twelfth episode of season one of the 1964-1966 comedy series The Addams Family. It was directed by Jerry Hopper and written by Hannibal Coons and Harry Winkler. It first aired on Friday, December 4th, 1964 on ABC. In this episode, Morticia's distraught cousin Melancholia comes to town looking to find a husband. Morticia and Gomez try to play matchmaker and go to extremes to find an available bachelor who may be willing (or not-so-willing) to marry Melancholia. Synopsis Morticia's cousin Melancholia comes to the Addams house in great distress. She tells Morticia and Gomez that her fiancé Fred left her to join the Foreign Legion and even took back their engagement ring. They ask her if she had any luck finding another man and Melancholia tells them about a man named Elmer who never made it to the altar. Morticia invites her cousin to stay with them for a while and has Lurch prepare a room. Once she is out of sight, Morticia and Gomez begin scheming to find Melancholia a man. Gomez calls all of his business contacts, but none of them have any interest in entering into a romantic relationship with anyone associated with the Addams Family. Morticia approaches Lurch with the idea of proposing to Melancholia, but Lurch is terrified by the notion and balks at the idea of having anything to do with her. Morticia understands, as she considers Lurch to be too much of a "playboy". She then addresses the matter to Thing who makes a strong "no" and "stop" gesture before quickly retreating back into his box. Grandmama Addams tries to make Melancholia more desirable by sprinkling her with a double dose of love dust. Coincidentally, Gomez' lawyer, James Ferguson has his agent Charles P. Harvey attempt to broker a contract with Gomez for a patch of land Nairobi that is rich in oil. When Gomez and Morticia learn that Harvey is a bachelor they immediately get the idea in their heads of marrying him off to Melancholia. Harvey is reluctant to go to the Addams house and always feels uncomfortable in their presence, but Ferguson presses the issue and forces him to go. Morticia takes Melancholia up to her room where she prepares her for her pending nuptials. She plucks her eyebrows for her and does her hair. She even lends her one of her own trademark black dresses. Harvey arrives at the house unaware that he is being set up. When he sees Melancholia with her new makeover, he grows instantly uncomfortable and tries to find an excuse to leave. Gomez will hear nothing of it however. He forces Harvey to share a strange drink with him and sits him down in the conservatory. Melancholia sits next to him, determined to make him her husband. Grandmama repeatedly doses Harvey with her love dust, but it has no affect on him. As luck would have it, Melancholia's ex-fiancé Fred arrives at the house. Their breakup was nothing but a great misunderstanding as he explains that he had actually joined the American Legion, not the Foreign Legion and the only reason he took the engagement ring back was because it was turning Melancholia's finger green. When he finds his beloved in the company of another man however, Fred grows insanely jealous and punches Harvey across the nose. Reunited and once again in love, Melancholia and Fred leave the Addams house arm in arm. Cast Principal Cast Featuring Guest Stars Notes & Trivia * This episode appears on The Addams Family: Volume One and The Addams Family: The Complete Series DVD collections. * Production code number: 7000-09 * Fester, Wednesday and Pugsley Addams do not appear in this episode. * Final episode of the series directed by Jerry Hopper. What else have they done? * Jerry Hopper also directed the episodes "Gomez, the Politician", "The Addams Family Tree" and "Green-Eyed Gomez". * Actress Hazel Shermet, who plays Melancholia Frump in this episode also played a character named Mrs. Knockwurst in the 1979 vampire comedy Love at First Bite. She was a woman in an elevator seen with Richard Benjamin's character Doctor Jeffrey Rosenberg. * Barry Kelley, who plays lawyer James Ferguson in this episode, also plays Rockland Cartwright, II in the season 1 episode "The Addams Family Meets a Beatnik". * Taxicab driver Lennie Bremen also plays a moving man in "Lurch and His Harpsichord" and a workman in "Gomez, the People's Choice". See also External Links * * * * * * "Morticia, the Matchmaker" at The Addams Family Wiki References ---- Category:1964 television episodes Category:Jerry Hopper Category:Herbert W. Browar Category:David Levy Category:Nat Perrin Category:Carolyn Jones Category:John Astin Category:Ted Cassidy Category:Marie Blake Category:Lee Goodman Category:Hazel Shermet Category:Barry Kelley Category:Hal Baylor Category:Lennie Bremen Category:Episodes with crew categories Category:Episodes with plot summaries